Shamus: Yet the DM decided to allow Haldir to reinforce Helm’s deep, which he did not do in the books. The DM is just picking and choosing from the movies that which supports his satirical story-line best, and apparently Peter Jackson’s Arwen did not back up whatever point the DM is trying to make (I’m guessing the DM either dislikes the movie Arwen entirely and has excised her for that reason, or he likes her too much to make fun of her).

My whole family (parents and 9 and 11 yo daughters) are enjoying this series immensely! Being ongoing RPG enthusiasts, we can’t wait to see how it all wraps up. Nice work! Your screen capture choices are priceless.

Yeah, having Haldir show up at Helm’s Deep was one of the decisions that made least sense to me. It undermines the sense that this battle is the last hope for Men in the world. (Minas Tirith doesn’t get to be Last Hope because they’re rotting away anyway, ala Byzantine Empire. Rohan is England with horses.) And in addition to that, Haldir couldn’t have come because he was preparing Lothlorien’s defenses. You didn’t really think Sauron would just leave them alone? Nope, on the day the Ring was destroyed, there were attacks from Dol Guldur on Lothlorien, Rivendell, and Dale/Erebor.

First, Great stuff! Very funny, especially since I have played withese guys or their clones
Second, Peter Jackson wanted to cut down on the number of charaters to keep up with so they dropped Glorfindel at the bridge. Good call actually, since JRR was kind of ambiguous as to who Glorfindel was… But apparently it means “crazy badass” in elvish because the first mention of the name is some blonde who is top popping balrogs in the Simarillion, and the second is another blonde dude who “can openly ride against the nine” Wow! good credentials… The Arawen choice is a pretty good one since it strengthens her character and gives Liv a chance to party with the ponies…
Third, it has always seemed to me that the DM was setting up a bunch of noobs but one guy who had played before was being trouble, to wit:
DM: Dude, just take one of the characters I created and play! Like uh… the dwarf or the human fighter…
PC: Man, I wanna play my 34th level mage, I never get to play him…*pout*
DM: *sigh* Look I don’t have time to fight about this, bring your freakin’ ‘Gandalf’ character then you baby… But every time you cast anything more powerful than a cantrip you lose 10K experience! Got it?
PC:sure, what ev’s… Just put in at least ONE decent encounter for him at some point, ok?
DM: Arrrgh…. FINE!
PC: um…?
DM: What?!
PC: I still have that sword I got in the last campaign… Can I still use it?
DM: Jeez Louise… sure, fine, whatever… can we just get going?!

The thing is, those two times when the name shows up? It’s the same guy. Glorfindel is a frickin’ awesome High Elf. He’s pretty much a Good equivalent to the Nazguls, along with Gandalf. Sauron doesn’t get all the superpowers.

This is a hilarious series for people who are into Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings a lot!

Deus Ex Machima is one of things that normally scares the players. Gaming philosophy suggests players like being accountable for their own actions and not be driven by outside forces. That’s how video games work.